Becoming Shareable

by Yvonne DiVita

David Armano of Logic + Emotion, a blog about 'insights, ideas and interactions,' created a post Thursday about sharing – actually, shareability. We all hope for high shareability when we write our blogs and post on twitter, but do any of us really know how to create shareable posts?

Armano's post aims to help you with that. He begins by saying, "If content were king, then great posts wouldn't go undiscovered every single day." I don't agree with him there – truth is, a lot of greatness gets passed by or ignored on a daily basis. Greatness is not dependent upon crowd-sourcing. If it were, we'd have a No Kill Nation by now, wouldn't we?

However, Armano makes a good point – that bad content gets shared almost as much as good content, depending on your definition of 'good' and 'bad'.

He likens 'bad' content to the lyrics of a Justin Bieber song, which, he says, if shared by Chris Brogan, would then be shared by all… proving that content is not king, I guess. To me, it proves nothing. SOME people would share Justin Bieber lyrics no matter WHO posted them. Others would rebel if those lyrics were shared on this blog or their favorite food blog.

It's a matter of choice, not of content. Content is king — to the reader. YOU decide what content you love (and are willing to share) not Armano or Brogan or the Huffington Post. The reader is king – but, said reader is still dependent on content. Vicious circle, I guess.

What works in this post is Armano's bulleted list of "What Impacts a Blog Post's Emotional Impact?" See below…

• The uniqueness of the post
• The timing of the post
• The relevance of the post to the reader
• The tone / style of the post
• The angle & idea of the post
• The intrigue created by the post’s headline
• The level of trust and credibility of the post (blog design, author reputation, accuracy of statements, quality of writing).

There's a great chart in the post to help the reader qualify his or her writing on a scale of 1- 10, using these bulleted points. Armano has graded his own post using the chart and it's worth a viewing, if you're interested in learning about shareability. Which I expect you are, if you've read this far into this post.

I am disappointed that audience isn't mentioned in his list. The closest thing he has to audience is bullet two: The relevance of the post to the reader. I believe audience plays a much bigger part in the success of shareability. Is your audience one that often shares content – yours or others'? Is the post aimed directly at the audience? Do you, the blogger, understand your audience well enough to create shareable posts? Surely, a post on shareability is important to bloggers hoping to build a bigger readership, or monetize their blogs. Yes?

Would a post on sharing be best written on a blog about marketing or blog effectiveness or … here, on our social media educational blog, for pet bloggers? Truth is, pet bloggers want to be the best they can be, just like everyone else. But, they often get ignored or overlooked because…well…they only write about pets. As if pets are just accessories or toys, and not worthy of notice.

Truth is, we know you want to be the best you can be – that you want your blog to be shared and noticed. I hope Armano's post helps you. Use the chart to qualify your writing. Share some of your thoughts here, where fellow pet bloggers can learn from you. And, don't forget to tweet and Facebook this post and posts your BFFs write. Sharing is caring.